Berliners Enraged by Actor's Portrayal of Jesus

BONN, Nov. 24—"Jesus Christ—Redeemer,” as played by Klaus Kinski in a oneman pop show, had a very had trip this week at the very beginning of a projected national tour.

Audience disapproval soon transformed his portrayal of Jesus as friend of the downtrodden into Jesus the enemy of practically everybody in Berlin's vast Deutschland Hall.

Mr. Kinski, frequently cast as the villain in continental films, had conceived “Jesus Christ—Redeemer” as a response to the current Jesus people fad in West Germany.

He composed the text himself, borrowing here and there from the. New Testament.

His opening lines, spoken in darkness, were a kind of “Wanted” poster: ‘'Wanted, Jesus Christ. Profession, worker. Special characteristics, scars on hands and feet. No party membership, also not the Christian party. He is not your superstar on the cross.”

From the crowd of 3,000 came the first catcalls: “Jesus isn't named Kinski,” “champagne guzzler,” “caviar chewer,” “for 10 marks you ought to give us more,” “comedian,” and, in an allusion to the provincials who are the butt of most contemporary German jokes, “East Frisian.”

Abandoning his Jesus pose the 45‐year‐old actor retorted with still rougher epithets.

“Dirty sow,” he yelled at a woman. “Vermin,” he yelled at a man. When this failed to stop the raillery Mr. Kinski screamed: “Shut your traps. Those of you who don't belong to this rabble, throw the others out.”

Then he went backstage and had what bystanders described as “a mild fit.” When the protests died down he came back and resumed declaiming his text. A reviewer for Berlin's Tagesspiegel, Arnd F. Schirmer, said that at this point “boredom crept through the Deutschland Hall.”

An onlooker who attempted to engage Mr. Kinski in a dialogue was seized by a bodyguard and thrown offstage. The audience went wild again. Mr. Kinski threw his hand microphone into the crowd, the cord catching his legs and causing him to stumble. “Kinski is a fascist,” chanted the crowd. Mr. Kinski ran backstage and broke into tears. “I love the Berliners to the point of sentimentality,” he told newsmen.

But the press, reviewing the Sunday night performance today, was unrelenting. “Jesus doesn't bleed, he sweats... Kinski is a bore,” commented Karena Niehoff in the Suddeutsche Zeitung, “The young Jesus fans had every reason to reject Kin ski's vulgar imitation,” concluded Sibylle Grack in the Stuttgarter Zeitung.

The debacle cast doubts on the rest of Mr. Kinski's Jesus trip. A performance scheduled for next week in Hanover has been canceled. Howver, according to his manager, his contract, for about $270,000, calls for scores of performances throughout Europe.

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A version of this archives appears in print on November 25, 1971, on Page 54 of the New York edition with the headline: Berliners Enraged by Actor's Portrayal of Jesus. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe